On the second day of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida responded with a surprise trip to Kiev – the first by a Japanese head of government to a country at war since World War II.
While Beijing strengthens relations with Russia, and sees the Russian president accept the peace proposal “as a basis for an agreement”, Tokyo gave an important sign of commitment to Ukraine, and invited President Volodymyr Zelensky to participate in the next Summit of the G7, to be held in Hiroshima in May.
The Japanese Prime Minister began the day with a guided tour of Bucha, where he expressed “strong indignation at the cruel acts” of the invaders, later paid tribute to the dead soldiers and finally met with Zelensky, with whom he signed a joint declaration on the joint partnership.
Kishida’s trip to the Ukrainian capital, dubbed “historic” by Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova, despite its geopolitical and symbolic impact, could not overcome the frisson of the Russian leader’s statements in response to the Chinese plan to end with what the Kremlin calls a “Special Military Operation”.
At the end of the bilateral summit, alongside Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin was receptive to adopting the 12-point plan – or part of it. “We believe that many of the provisions of the peace plan presented by China are in line with Russian approaches and can be taken as the basis for a peace agreement when the West and Kiev are ready for it,” he said.
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